It definitely happens, but AOS is national and judges are supposed to be aware of national standards/trends and not be regionally unaware or influenced. I hang out periodically at the Atlanta center, and there is always a program of review of new awards and periodic reports of trends different orchid groups. The Atlanta center also maintains a library of taxonomic references. I've had plenty of good looking species flowers turned down (even though the judges had never seen the species in life) because when the taxonomic description was reviewed, the flower fell into the "normal range" of what the species was expected to do in the wild.
If it was an obscure species its easy to get isolated regional results, but kovachii has been making international orchid headlines for years, and its hard to believe that a regional body is behind the times.
Yes, with the lack of quality awards all you have is the CBR's and CHM's to compare too. I can't recall the specs on Glenn's original CHM plant so instructively we could compare this flower to the CHM if someone still has that info around.
There are a lot of different judging philosophies from one center to the next. Some have much less concern over lateral awarding and can produce a lot of different quality awards without concern of "locking out" newer plants based on past award history. Some are very strict with precedent.
So I'd rather not try to spend a lot of time 2nd guessing judges decisions and enjoy the flowers.
